In hospitals and other clinical settings, healthcare providers may use medical instruments such as test strip readers or analyte monitoring devices to perform diagnostic tests on multiple patients. Current infection control protocols require that the healthcare provider clean the medical instrument between each use or between each patient. This can mean that a particular medical instrument may cleaned thousands of times within the course of a year. It is even possible that a medical instrument may be cleaned tens of thousands of times within its service life.
A typical cleaning and disinfection protocol may require a number of steps. For example the healthcare provider may first clean the medical instrument to remove visible contaminates from its exterior surface. Next the medical instrument may be disinfected using a disinfecting liquid or a textile impregnated with the disinfecting liquid. After this the medical instrument is allowed to dry.
A challenge in cleaning such medical instruments is that fluids used for the cleaning and/or disinfecting steps can destroy electronic components or delicate instruments used for performing the diagnostic tests if such fluids enter into the interior volume of the medical instrument, e.g. via the test element port. Ports used to insert biological samples or test elements or test strips not only need to be sealed against these fluids, but they also need to be able to be reliably sealed for tens of thousands of cycles.
United States patent application US 2012/0150448 A1 discloses a hand held analyte measurement system with a test strip port.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,158,081 B2 discloses an analyte monitoring device with a cover for covering an opening in the analyte meter. The cover is on the exterior of the analyte meter.
The document. ACCU-CHEK Inform II BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITORING SYSTEM Operator's Manual, version 3.0. (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany, March 2013; available online at http://www.accu-chekinformii.com/pdf/05234646002_ACl2_OpsMan.pdf) describes a cleaning method for a handheld blood glucose monitoring system on page 124 to 131.
European Patent application publication EP 2741076 A1 pertains to a biological sample measurement device, which is intended to be easier to use. To achieve this object, the present invention comprises a main body case having a sensor insertion opening into which a sensor for measuring biological samples is inserted, a connection terminal provided within the main body case behind the sensor insertion opening, and a shutter that is provided within the main body case between the sensor insertion opening and the connection terminal and that opens and closes the sensor insertion opening.
PCT patent application publication WO 2010/024971 A1 discloses a device for preventing electrical shock from a device with electrical interfaces. A shutter or other barrier associated with the device that physically prevents access or contact to one of the electrical interfaces while another electrical interface is in use.
United States Patent application publication US 2010/0249567 (hereafter “the '567 application”) discloses a portable blood sugar measuring device comprising a tape unit for winding a test tape forward in sections, a detection unit for detecting measured values on the sections of tape to which body fluid has been applied, and a housing to hold the tape unit and detection unit. The tape unit and/or the detection unit can be deflected relative to the housing from an operating position against a flexible restoring element when subjected to a shock load. Also disclosed is a novel cover having open and closed positions. The cover is positioned at an opening of the housing through which the receiving site of the tape unit protrudes. The cover thus protects the receiving site from external effects when the cover is in the closed position. Similarly, the receiving site is accessible to apply body fluid thereto when the cover is in the open position.